Forgive or fire? ESPN ponders Rob Parker's fate

Dec. 19, 2012
|

ESPN's Rob Parker was suspended by the network after he said last week, in an appearance on First Take, about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, "My question is, and it's just a straight, honest question: Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?" / Geoff Burke, USA TODAY Sports

by Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports

by Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports

TV sports analysts need not worry that using cliches or faulty grammar or cursing or even being nonsensical could cost them their jobs.

But as ESPN ponders whether to use Rob Parker for his next scheduled on-air appearance Thursday or extend his suspension -- or fire him -- for his comments about NFL rookie star Robert Griffin III, the episode raises TV sportscasting's most basic job requirement: Avoid overt racial or ethnic stereotypes -- or even talking about race unless your points are well thought out and carefully worded.

Which is smart. (Although it's somewhat ironic that nobody gets in trouble for mentioning Griffin's team -- the Washington Redskins.)

ESPN had no comment Tuesday and Parker has yet to comment publicly on his suspension, which started last week.

However Parker might feel now, he can't use the standard mea culpa -- that he didn't even know that he was referring to race -- that has saved some announcers. Parker, an African-American, was explicitly talking about race on ESPN's First Take show last week when he asked whether Griffin was a "cornball brother," and said Griffin is "black" but "not really down with the cause. He's not one of us."

In 2006, Fox dropped MLB analyst Steve Lyons after he suggested on-air a convoluted connection between Hispanics and stealing wallets, which he told USA TODAY at the time was "a joke that had nothing to do with race. ... I'm happy to apologize to anybody who took it that way. But it seems a little stretch to lose your job over. It's hard to understand."

On-air references to ethnicity can be job-killers even when it's unclear which group is being stereotyped. Just weeks into a much-hyped gig at ESPN in 2003, Rush Limbaugh was dropped after theorizing that the media "is very desirous that a black quarterback do well."

And sometimes it might take star power, which Parker doesn't have at this point in his career, to survive. Howard Cosell, in 1983, and Billy Packer, in 1996, each stayed on-air after calling an African-American athlete "a monkey," partly because they were believable in wondering what all the fuss was about.

Golf Channel host Kelly Tilghman survived her suggestion in 2008 that Tiger Woods' competitors could "lynch him" to slow him down when she said in apologizing that "while I didn't mean to offend anyone, I realize those words were hurtful." Fox didn't punish Terry Bradshaw this fall after he said that an African-American player, in a game highlight, was "chasing a bucket of chicken" after he seemed convincing in saying it was part of a running joke with Fox's Jimmy Johnson and could have fit in "with a highlight about anybody."

Neal Pilson, an ex-CBS Sports president, in 1988 oversaw one of the highest-profile sports announcer firings for race-related comments after Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder suggested athletic prowess among African-Americans was somehow related to how they were "bred" during slavery. "He volunteered his genealogical comments when we weren't paying him for that," Pilson says.

What's changed since then, says Pilson, is that while broadcast networks have remained largely focused on major sporting events with just a bit of surrounding sports patter, cable TV channels have hours to fill. That includes predictably low-rated weekday morning shows -- such as First Take -- that can be produced relatively cheaply and provide lots of yak. "That means there'll be lots of personality-driven shows and inevitably people will say inappropriate things," says Pilson. "And some people will argue, 'Aren't you paying them to do that?' ''

But, Pilson says, this hasn't changed: "There are certain things, certainly race, that are still sensitive and out-of-bounds."

TV sports has plenty of weaknesses, like forcing networks to at least pretend to be objective about sports they pay billions to cover. But the TV genre has a strength in that, even on a little-watched show such as First Take, everybody has to be thoughtful when they talk about race and ethnicity.

Parker wasn't. But ESPN should give him another chance. Because, putting specifics aside, Parker was like the others who survived on-air after making comments about race: His mistake was not taking the subject seriously enough.

Spice rack: For its five NBA games on Christmas Day, ESPN/ABC will debut a new and bigger Los Angeles studio show set. The most unique thing about it, says studio show coordinating producer Amina Hussein, is that it will have four large video screens: "I'd like to get the guys up and moving around a bit more." ... Monday Night Football announcer Mike Tirico pronounced the New York Jets fumbling away a chance for a last-minute comeback against Tennessee as "ugly." So was MNF's rating: It drew 6.6% of U.S. households -- down 34% from comparable coverage of a Pittsburgh-San Francisco game last year. ... After last year debuting live-streaming of the Saturday wild card playoff games, the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl, NFL spokesman Dan Masonson says the league will announce Wednesday that it will stream TV coverage of those events this season. Last year, the Super Bowl drew 2.1 million digital users while drawing 111.3 million viewers on TV. ... After debuting its "Broadcast Boot Camp" in 2007, meant to help players get broadcasting jobs, the league will debut four new so-called boot camps this off-season -- for sports journalism, business franchising, entrepreneurship and the culinary arts. ... Billy Crystal will be a guest anchor on ESPN's 6 p.m. SportsCenter Wednesday. That's got to be up there with hosting the Oscars.